Oooooooommmmmmmmmmm

Motivation "will all have to happen from within".

So what the hell does that mean?

Conceptually, of course, I know what that means.

• Draw your power from inside.
• Don't let any thing get in the way of your goal(s).
• Focus.
• Blah, blah, blah.

At times, it is very easy for me to self-motivate.

But, frankly, some mornings it takes a lot of self-motivation to get out of bed to get ready for work, when just fluffing the covers, turning over and going back to sleep seems like a much more palatable option.

The real rub for me will be to work on this concept:

"Act As If"

When JonnyJ and I had our Ironman debrief, he hammered home the fact that, even with not being able to eat during the marathon, I was obviously stronger than I thought because when I was asked to pick up the pace, I did. By over 2 minutes per mile.

What I really couldn't do was get my head around finishing. My brain was telling me all sort of "lies":

You shouldn't be here.

Who are you kidding?

Every one else is a real triathlete, you are a hack.

Stop running now. It will feel better.

(Okay, that was only a half-lie. It did feel better to just walk, but it did not feel better to not finish).

Conversations in my head have plagued me since I was a kid. An overweight, pimply-faced kid at that.

Athletics were a struggle for me. The annual President's Physical Fitness assessment equaled two weeks of dread and embarrassment. I was the slowest runner; I couldn't jump very well and I certainly could not hold myself up for the chin-up challenge or pull myself up during the rope climb task.

The summer before I went in to high school, I discovered tennis. I actually liked it and was reasonably good at it. (Fun Fact: I still happen to own and play with a Wilson T-2000) But I wasn't quite good enough to win a lot of matches.

I decided to believe that it was better to participate than to win. Since I wasn't "good enough" to win, I might as well come up with some line I could tell myself so I could actually motivate myself to get to practice.

Some might say: "Well, maybe you are just not competitive".

Good deduction, but lousy assessment.

I used to tell myself that too. (Sometimes still do). But the fact of the matter is I am pretty competitive most of the time. Fact is, I find my self competing over the weirdest, silliest things. It really surprises me...

Anyway: zoom forward. Many years forward. I start running. Although I always wanted to be a runner and lived very close to lakes were runners were running all day long, I never could get myself to do it.

Why:

• I'm not built like a runner (who, obviously, are all tiny, tiny boned, super thin speed freaks)
• I can't keep up with other runners (who, again, are all speed freaks)
• Who am I kidding...

Sound familiar?

And yet, runner I became.

Hubby signed me up for that first 5k, where I was slow-as-molasses. Yet, spectators clapped when I shuffled by, they said stuff like "go Runner!" and there was FOOD at the finish-line.

Ding, ding, ding went the bell; Pavlov's theory proved to be correct once again, and I continued to line up at the start line of 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons and marathons.

I have generally finished all of those races at the back of the pack. (Now I will say, the larger the field, the less toward the back I am, and in recent years, I've moved up to sort of the back-of-the -back-of-the-middle-of-the-pack). I am "okay" with that.

Why?

"I'm happy to participate".

(Nowadays) "I'm glad to, at my (ancient) age, be here doing this. Look at how many other XX year-old women are not here doing this."

"I'm not a real runner" (because I typically do a run/walk thing when I race.

Add triathlon in to the mix:

When I started tris, I really was a terrible swimmer. (No "conversation"; just a fact. To swim 100 yards, I had to do 25 yards each of the crawl, the backstroke, the breast stroke and sidestroke).

I was not a great biker and did not have a cool bike.

But I could "run".

I took lots of swim lessons and got to be a better swimmer. I biked more and got a better bike. And, I did lots and lots and lots of tris: sprints, Oly's and Halfs....

I discovered the Athena category and places much higher in the ranks, which fed my competitive craving.

Still:

• happy to participate
• Incredibly happy to not drown during the swim
• But I'm not a "real" triathlete.

Then, I decided to sign up for Ironman.

The distance and the training intrigued me. The time-cut off worried me, but I was pretty sure that I would be able to finish the race in 17 hours. (I didn't initally know about the interium cut-offs, except for the swim cut-off, which, frankly did worry me.)

I trained -- was very committed to the traning tasks (self-motivated....) and pushed my comfort zone by doing some open water swim events without a wetsuit; did some longer ride events.

Yet, there was always the nagging conversation in my head:

You are so much slower on the bike than everyone else.

You are slower in the water, your a slower runner....

who are you kidding?

And so it went....

So Acting As If: JonnyJ says that I have to start having the conversations that say:

I am an athlete.

I am a TRIATHLETE.

I am faster than I give myself credit for.

(As proved by my recent running, where I am holding the 9's pretty darn easily.)

When my brain tells me to quit, it is lying to me. I've got much more in the tank

Changing the words will change my attitude.

Changing my attitude will change my beliefs.

Committing to the process will make it much easier to commit to the work.

The work will get me to the finish line.

So, I'm acting as if....

ZIPP-e-tee-do-dahhhhhhh

Chisago is in the books. It was a very good race for me. I PRed by 55 minutes over my 2009 time (when I walked pretty much the whole 1/2 marathon) and PRed by 37 minutes over Liberty 1/2 iron tri earlier this summer.

Yippee, yippee, yippee!

Two things worked well for me:
1) I have been working hard. Still not sure if it has been "finish Ironman WI before midnight" hard enough, but I have been working hard.
2) Zipp wheels.

Yes, that's right: awesome, rocking Zipp wheels.

I rented a pair for IM WI but got a chance to "preview" them last weekend. I had a bike fit tweak scheduled for last Wednesday with Kevin at Gear West. Unfortunately, Kevin had to switch my appointment at the last minute. When making the new appointment, Kevin asked me what my concerns were. I talked about the bike fit but also asked about the race wheels.

Having never used them before, I didn't know if they'd really make a difference, or if they would ride differently than regular wheels, or if it would make a difference if I was on a flat course (which IM WI is NOT) versus a hilly course (which IM WI IS).

He answered each of my questions (Yes; not really; no) and then said that I could preview a pair for Chisago... and so I did.

WOW!

What a difference! I was much faster on the bike; the little hills didn't feel like much work at all and made it through those 56 miles in 3 hours and 10 minutes. That was a HUGE improvement for me!

The swim was pretty uneventful -- felt good in the water and came out in 45 minutes. The "official" time was 47 minutes because the timing mat was at the top of a hill (where transition was set up). I decided to take a potty-break in the bath house, which was on my way up the hill.

My run was okay -- not stellar. I actually RAN this year -- but did end up taking lots of walk breaks. The temps were up and there was not a cloud in the sky, so I got very hot, very fast.

All in all, I discovered that getting off the bike earlier means you see more of your friends out on the run course. (Who knew?)

Nat, Patrick, Gary, Rich, CY, Derek, Joe, Pam and Brett all just rocked the course. Marcia did the sprint distance and was out on the run course with her wonderful supplies of ice, water and other "aid". (I think it will be very hard for her to not be able to provide any support other than cheers at IM WI....If she hands us any thing on the course, we risk disqualification).

Another really nice plus was that my coach decided to race the event too. I saw him right before the swim, where he wished me well and gave me a nice little pep talk. He caught up to me at about mile 35 on the bike and gave me another "Atta Girl" along with a high-five as we passed each other on the run. That kind of encouragement means a lot to me.

After the race, I was supposed to ride the 56-mile course again. I ended up only looping the 22-mile sprint course. (I know. I am a bad person.)

I was way over heated; the sun was relentless and, foolish me, packed a cooler with water and extra nutrition for the second loop, but forgot ice.

So.... I had HOT Infinit and Nunn. Blech.

I had also developed a bit of a blood blister:




which bugged me a bit.

Still and all, 78 miles, plus 1.2 for the swim; plus 13.1 for the run? All in all a good day.

Only one more tri left before IM WI: Waseca 1/3 iron.

I can't believe how fast time is flying and how fast the summer is passing.

I'll run a 1/2 marathon with Hubby on August 7th -- it will be his first...And I'll got back to Madison for one last ride on that bike course... plus, I'm sure my coach has lot of other fun stuff in store for me over the next 7 weeks....

Finally, I thought the photo below was very telling about life at our house. Notice what fills the dishwasher:



Seven water bottles and three cat food dishes.....

What more can I say?

Right where I'm suppposed to be.... I think.

Greetings from Tempe, where it is 115 degrees. But, you know, "it's a dry heat".

Yeah, like an oven. Yikes!

I'm leaving to go back to the "cool" (humid) Minnesota in just a few minutes, so only have a bit of time to catch up on what's been going on.

The WIBA weekend was wonderful and eye-opening.

I went with Nat and Amy S. The Stenzel's were there too and I had a chance to meet Mike and Jenny Wimmer. I met some other new friends, includig "famous" people like RobbyB and Simply Stu.

Friday night, we all had dinner together and there was a Course Prep talk. I got a lot of great tips, including

• "put your name on every thing" and
• "put a pair of extra running shoes in your Running Special Needs bag in case it is raining and the pair you started out with is soaked by mile 13.5...."
  
  Brilliant.

I had already thought about extra socks but did not think about the shoes....makes total sense.

Saturday, we swam in Mendota. The lake felt wonderful and the swim went well.

The only concerns I have for September are that the lake will be too warm to be wetsuit legal and, of course, the chaos of the start. Fortunately, I did that 1-mile open water swim (sans wet suit) and did just fine. I do like the wetsuit for the buoyancy, though and with a big event like Ironman, would like to know that if I get kicked in the head, I won't sink like a stone.

We ran pretty much the first loop of the marathon course on Sunday. The run is great. It winds mostly through the University of Wisconsin campus, which is beautiful. The route took us past my first ever apartment, by my dorm, then out to the Lakeshore path, back in near the Union, down and back State Street, then up Observatory hill and eventually winds back to the Capital.

My run went really well and I felt great. I ran part of the course with Amy S and then finished up with Nat, Rich and a guy who just did Kansas 70.3. I called him "Kansas".

So, so far, so good, right?

Well, notice that I've said nothing about the bike course..... until now.

I had read and heard a lot of things about the IM WI bike course -- and all the stories about the hills are true.

Hills, hills, hills and then more hills. Not Minnesota hills. Wisconsin "hey, a GLACIER carved through here centuries ago and created these hills" hills.

OMG.

Let me say that again:

OMG.

I had read some one's blog about the hills at Wisconsin and he wrote: "Learn to love your small chain ring. Buy it presents".

I, of course, pooh-poohed his advice after reading it. After all, I'm a big girl, I like to mash those gears.

Oh no. Not only was he right, he was dead-on right. I'm looking for presents for my small chain ring every day now.

So the good news : I got through the loop (only once and the course will have us do the loop twice). I stayed seated during all the climbs but one. I got to see what I'm up against.

The not-so-good news: I'm very, very worried about my ability to get through the bike course within the cut off limits.

I'm not the strongest biker in the pack -- this, despite the fact that I've been training since December. I am not the best rider up the hills and I get a bit frightened on the down hills, so I tend to brake a bit, reducing the down-hill advantages.

So, the bike ride sobered my IM WI dreams up a bit.

I'm worried that I haven't done enough training or the right training or the "something" training.

My coach says we still have time to get it together (meaning I'll be doing lots and lots and lots more biking on hilly courses).

I'm going back to ride the whole course one more time before taper time... which should help.

But that little seed of doubt and fear has been planted: what happens, if after all this training and all this preparation, I don't finish?

I'm trying hard not to let this seed germinate and grow.

I know that, about this time in a training cycle, we all tend to doubt our training, our bodies, our mental prep. So, these thoughts are probably "normal" and I'm right where I am supposed to be...

I'm just going to have to keep plugging along. I'll have to trust the training, my coach and the work.

Most of all, I'm going to just have to trust my self...

Fargo 1/2 and Apple Du

My whirlwind calendar of events leading up to September 12th began on May 22nd with Fargo 1/2 marathon.

Fargo puts on a terrific running weekend, which includes a marathon, the half, 10k and 5k events.

For the past few years, my friends Nat, Marcia, Mary K and I have done the 1/2. This year, Gary joined us for the fun.

May's weather in Fargo can be a bit "iffy". We've run in the cold; we've run in the heat. The one real constant is the wind....yikes!

This year, we lined up outside the Fargodome on Saturday morning just as the sprinkles started to come. By the time the starting gun went off, the rain was pretty steady and "cool". Not cold, just cool.

Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time I got to mile 3 and the temps were mostly plesant for the rest of the race.

I ran well -- steady and feeling good. Actually RAN the first 7.9 miles of the race with out walking (except for one potty break), which I have never done before. (BIG accomplishment for me!).

The one big bummer was that, with all the rain, my socks had gotten pretty wet, so I developed a blister on one of my toes. At mile 9, just at the end of a water stop, I asked a friendly volunteer if the stop had any band-aids on hand.

"No", the friendly volunteer said, "but, I'll give you my sock. It's dry and clean".

"Sold!"

So he gave me his sock and I trotted on to the end.

It was not a PR for me, but I did take almost 17 minutes off of my 2009 time and almost 13 minutes off my 2008 time. I was very happy with my results.

All my friends had a good race -- Nat PR'ed, in fact. We shared a great lunch after the race and are already looking forward to Fargo 2011.

I noticed a slight tickle in my throat during the drive back to Minneapolis.

This tickle lurked for most of the rest of the week until late on Thursday, when BOOM. I had a stuffed nose and laryngitis. Bad laryngitis. No voice. At all. Just squeaks.

So I did the Apple Duathlon with no voice....

The Du was my first run/bike/run event. It turned out to be a very fun event. Nat and I both entered and we car pooled from Minneapolis to Sartell MN -- about 90 minutes away -- for the race.

I really didn't know what to expect with a Du. I found out that packing transition stuff is much easier: you don't have to worry about all that "swim" stuff.

Although the field was pretty small (only about 350 people), there were a number of multisport heros participating in it: Cathy Yndestad, Julie Hull, David Thompson, Kevin O'Connor, to name a few.

It was hot and sunny at the start of the race. My first 5k was pretty good. I ran it in just a hair over 30 minutes (9:53 pace). Another first for me.

The 33K bike route was beautiful -- a few challenging hills, but I really felt great for about the first 10-miles. Then came the turn home, which also happened to be straight in to the wind -- YUCK. My mph dropped fast and my frustration grew.

Final tally: Took me about 1:17 to cover the 20.5 miles, for a pace of 15.9 mph. Boo hoo on that...

I was tired and hacking when I rode back in to transition, so I decided to take my sweet a$$ time on the 2nd 5K. I flipped off my bike shoes; grabbed my running shoes and had a blistering T2 of 1:32.

Then came my sweet a$$ time. I sat on a curb just outside transition and put on my shoes; I got a drink of water; I took my time strolling up the big a$$ hill at the start of the 5K route. Then I started to feel guilty, so I started running.

I did a run/walk for the rest of the 5K, but at a very leisurely pace. Took me 40 minutes for the second 5k.

Now, of course, I feel bad about being so "lazy" on that second loop.

Truth be told, I wasn't feeling so great and I let my mind control my feet. Silly, I know.

Bottom line: the Du was fun and I'd "du" one again.

The rest of my Memorial Day weekend was very fun. A bike ride with some friends; a dip in to the lake to get ready for next week's triathlon and a great round of golf with Hubby and some of his golf friends.

I still don't have much of a voice -- but it is slowly coming back.

Only 16 weeks until Ironman. Amazing how fast time is flying!

20 WEEKS -- are you kidding?

Twenty weeks until IM Moo. That is Ironman Wisconsin for any one that has not been paying attention.

Like me.

Twenty WEEKS? TWENTY? How did that happen?

You'll note my training log on the side has been devoid of any mileage updates for quite a while. Oh, I've been working out. I've been training. I've been swimming, biking and running.

I haven't been blogging. (Or tracking calories, if the truth must be told...)

The good news is that I got through a couple of the races that Coach Dan put on my schedule for this year.

Human Race/ Earth Day 8K on March 28th. Ran it in 50:15, which was a very good time for me.

Trail Mix 25K on April 17th. Two loops through a really wonderful park, nature preserve and ski area. (In other words: HILLY). Finished it in 3:11, which was a 14 minute PR for me for the course. (The last time I ran Trail Mix was in 2004).

Last weekend, I was supposed to do two events: Get in Gear (GIG) 10K and 65 miles on the Ironman Bike Ride - Minnesota. Hubby's plan was to run the GIG 5K event and then play in his first Minnesota golf tournament for 2010.

Mother Nature had other plans.

Hubby and I woke to thunder and lightening on Saturday morning. We had planned to run if it was rainy, but did not want to run if it was pouring. So we went back to sleep.

We did end up running later in the day, so it was not a total wash out (pun intended).

Sunday was rainy too, but there was no lightening. Just rain. Oh, and wind.

Since I was riding this event with my friends Gary and Nat, I could not just go back to bed. So, I loaded up the bike, picked up Gary and went to the start line.


Nat's been under the weather and decided to not risk getting sick again, but Gary and I went out on the course.

We did decide to only ride the 30-mile route, which was a smart choice. My feet got soaked by rain and got very cold. I don't think they could have really handled 35 additional miles.

Despite the cold/rain, the event was really wonderful! Nice course with some challenging hills. Terrific rest stops manned by very helpful volunteers and yummy stuff like HOT oatmeal, HOT coffee, HOT chocolate, muffins, candy (?), Cracker Jack, Trail Mix and other deliciousness.

I was also happily surprised at the number of riders that braved the weather. Had the day been nice, I'm sure there would have been thousands of riders out on the road.

I definitely will do this ride again next year. I can not say enough good things about it.

Okay, back to reality:

Twenty weeks!

Really time to get serious about the mileage, the time and the training.

Cuz now it is nineteen weeks and six days....

"volume increases a little, Amy..."

That is the note my coach jotted down on my training schedule for the upcoming week.

My week includes one swim session of over 3,000 yards (plus 3 others).

One run session of 1:45 (plus two others).

One bike session of 2:15, which he generously is allowing me to split in to two sections ..."if you need to..." (plus 3 others).

This isn't even official training yet!

Yikes!

Mantra for my life: take it one day (one workout) at a time.

Mantra for my training: "We make thousands of little decisions every day. Six months from now, those microdecisions will either make you or break you."

I'm going to do my best to make smart microdecisions one day at at time.

Winter Arrives. Blech

After an unseasonably warm and dry November, winter officially arrived in Minnesota last week.

Nat and I did a quick run on Tuesday when the temps were still "balmy" -- 40s during the day and 30's at night.

On Wednesday, the wind shifted and the temps dropped. We had our first dusting of snow early on Thursday morning.

Now, the furnace kicks on about twice an hour; the lakes are starting to freeze and I broke out the Cuddle Duds.

Training this week went well. Coach Dan had me in the water three times; on the bike four times and running three times. I made it all but one of the runs, which was scheduled for Thursday night, the first really cold night so far. I just couldn't muster the gumption to get out and get it done.

Instead, Hubby and I hit Golfsmith, where they were having a 25% off of most everything sale. We stocked up on some golf balls, tees and got a couple of used clubs.

Why?

We are going on a little golf vacation soon with some friends of ours. The weather should be warm and sunny, which will be a very nice break.

I'll also be able to get some training in while I'm on vacation. It will be nice to run without wearing mittens and long underwear.

One last SHOUT OUT to Sabrina, Hubby's daughter. She's been getting in to fitness recently and ran her first 5K on Thanksgiving (see last post). She ran her SECOND 5K on Saturday -- the Reindeer Run.

She is really getting in to it, which is really fabulous. I'm very proud of her and her accomplishments!

Fast and furious

No, not me unfortunately. Well, furious, maybe, but certainly not fast.

The truth was glaringly apparent yesterday, as I did a little workout with my friend Nat. We decided enough of our usual 'pussy-footing around' workouts and went for a little speed work by running pickups last night.

Did a little warm up (also at a pace that was faster than current-usual). Then we did six one-minute pickups with some longer recover pieces in-between.

YIKES.

I could feel every single lb of stored winter (okay, SPRING) weight that I've packed on. Nat really got ahead of me on the pickups, which was fine and depressing at the same time.

Proved to me -- again -- that I have got to get it back together and get in to training. Not having fun, but training. (Not that training isn't fun.... it's just hard.)

This also applies to biking and swimming.

We have a whole, huge Posse of people that are training for some tris this summer. None of us joined a formal training program this year, for one reason or another.

For one, most are waaaaay to expensive. For another, we can't find one that any of us really love any more. Most of us really, really, really miss having a training group. The one that we were all so heavily involved with evolved in to a really not-very-fun place to be, which is just a shame.

I really envy the bloggers that I follow who have great tri or running training groups.

Our group is pretty good about getting together and getting workouts in. Truth be told, though, we are all a little bit on the "let's just take it easy" side.

I need someone like Jillian from Biggest Loser yelling at me to do "MORE! FASTER! STRONGER, HARDER!"and to "PUT THE FORK DOWN for chissake!"

Anyway, I digress:

The Posse got together for a bike ride last Sunday. We were out for about 2 hours. Great company, great back on the bike, great trail. Except for Nat, who got a flat tire.

In any event, fun (but slow) ride.

As far as the furious thing... well, that is a topic for another post.

Callie Does Triathlon

It may be a little hard to see, but that is Callie peaking out from my TYR backpack. She is looking for her goggles...

Tri U Mah -- a fantastic indoor triathlon held at the University of Minnesota -- is only two weeks away.

I'm doing the event this year with Marcia, Nat and Gary. I'm very excited to get back in to "the season".

The event always represents the "unofficial" official start of training season for me. Unofficial because it is held in FEBRUARY in MINNESOTA, so it is kind of tough to be very "in" to training when the winds are whipping, the snow is mounting and the days are still dismally dark.

But, it is official because the event signals "hope" that winter will end sooner rather than later and then the real fun begins.

The event's format is pretty cool: swim for 30 minutes; bike for 30 minutes; run for 30 minutes. T1 and T2 are both 10 ten minutes long. Volunteers measure the completed distance in each discipline and who ever covers the most ground during the event wins. (It is never me...)

Tri U Mah was the first triathlon I ever did and, apparently, that first time was five years ago. It's the 5th anniversary of the event and there are about six people (including me) that have participated every year. The six of us are being "highlighted" in some way or another during the event, which is nice. The people putting together asked for a photo to use, so I sent one from Lifetime Fitness a couple summers ago. I looked relatively fit, which is certainly not the case right now.

I've put on my usual share of winter weight, which is never a surprise and always a drag (literally and figuratively).

Although I have been better at working out again, I certainly have not been training in earnest. I've had some great days with my food (meaning no candy or sugar) followed by days of nothing but candy and sugar.

So, changing in to my swim suit today to get ready for my mini rehearsal for Tri U Mah meant avoiding the mirror at all costs. Same with positioning myself on a bike and a treadmill -- I found the ones with the least mirror exposure. I can feel my bulky bulkiness, I don't really need to see it... (Denial, denial, denial...)

I only did 20 minutes each of swimming, biking and running today. I covered 990 yards swimming (or .5625 miles); 5.62 miles on the bike and 1.70 running.

I should have covered more ground running, but a friend of mine, Phyllis, was at the club today. I haven't seen her in a very long time, so she and I chatted for about 8 minutes while I walked very quickly on the treadmill.

Sometimes chatting is more important than focusing on the distance...

Out of the Igloo

The temperature here is FINALLY above zero.

I woke up to a balmy 10 degrees. Woo hoo!

After 86 hours below zero -- including two mornings of wake-up air temps of 21 BELOW, ten-ABOVE felt like summmer.

Well, maybe not summer, but certainly much better.

I woke up in time to run with my friends Mary, Marcia, Gary and Sarah. We only ran about 5 miles, but it was really nice to be outside and to breathe some fresh air.

Although I'm not in hard-core training, I did swim twice this week; did an hour of cardio Tuesday and ran today.

I also successfully did not eat candy for three days. Progress, not perfection.

This afternoon, Hubby and I went to see Annie, the golden retriever that made the news last December.

She had been shot twice (by some jerkassholeidiot that has yet to be caught) and was left to die in a freezing snowbank somewhere in rural Minnesota.

A good Samaritan found her and brought her to the Twin Cities where Rescue a Golden of Minnesota (RAGOM)and the University of Minnesota Small Animal Clinic took her under their wings and saved her.

I've been following her story on the RAGOM website. Really a horrible story with a wonderful ending.

Today, RAGOM arranged a "thank you" party for people that have been supporting Annie through contributions or love or interest at a suburban car dealer.

Hubby and I went to say hello and to give her a hug. The place was packed with lots of well-wishers and other RAGOM dogs.

Annie was great. Friendly, cute, warm, oh-so-lovable. Very tolerant of everyone petting her and giving her praise and cookies.

The other dogs were also really sweet, wonderful dogs.

I was so happy that we got to go to say "hello" and to give a little bit of of a contribution to RAGOM.

I took a couple photos using my camera phone and now I have my whole evening ahead of me to figure out how to get them off of my phone and on the here....

Reality

Happy New Year to all!

Hubby and I spent an incredibly quiet night at home bringing in 2009.

We were hoping to be able to rent a movie from our Cable provider, but the service was down yesterday. So we flipped between football, "Saving Private Ryan", a show focused on former people that were on episodes of "Made" and "True Life", and "bringin' in the New Year in NYC" shows on CNN, NBC and ABC.

Yawn.

It was really nice to be cuddly on the couch -- don' t get me wrong. It was just a little sleepy, which is really want I wanted to do at about 9:00 pm.

I was convinced to stay awake until 12:04 am, when I went to bed and Hubby, who had indulged in a little 12-year old scotch, found "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" on a t.v. channel and stayed awake to watch it until 3:30 am.

I ran the Polar 10K with my running pals Marcia, Gary and Mary this morning.

The race was a rude reminder that the holidays are over and it is time to get back to Reality.

I ran a great 5k on Thanksgiving day and have really been very slug like ever since. Barely laced up my shoes once; put in minimal miles (except for walking to the fridge); ate sugar as if it was going out of style.

I could really tell during the race. I was slow, sluggish, winded. A long, long cry from where I was in August after Pigman 1/2 iron...

BUT, the course was pretty, I had a great time with my friends and I got through it.

I also bumped in to a friend of mind from grade school /high school that I've recently re-met on Facebook...Tom I.

I joined Facebook (FB) late last fall and have been having some fun finding old friends, like Tom. I didn't know he was running the race today, so it was fun to recognize his picture from FB and to see him in-person. We ran the first mile together and caught up (in-between my wheezing).

---
So 2009 is here -- full of CHANGE (1/20/09!) and opportunities and a successful reintroduction to Training and eating healthier..

I wish health for every one.

I wish for a year were things settle down and we all get back to "normal".

I wish peace for all.

I wish rockin' PRs for all my running/tri friends.

I wish that we all have fun starring in our very own Reality shows...

I am not a Mountain Goat...

The story, as it goes, is that I was rather klutzy as a child.

I don't remember it as such, but, I've been told.

Actually, I've been told that my mother first noticed this.

She remarked to someone after one of my falls, that had I been born a Mountain Goat, I would not have survived my first year.

She was certain that I would have fallen off some cliff or mountain side and would have never made goat -- er, I mean HUMAN middle-age.

Well, some things never change.

Since moving up to bike clips this year, I've fallen about 5 or 6 times. I've broken 3 mirrors. I've had bruised hips, hands full of road rash and a very beaten up ego.

Why ego, you ask?

With the exception of the crash that happened a few weeks ago, when I was riding over the Mendota Bridge and a kid, going the opposite way, crossed over the middle line and clipped my handle bars causing us both to fly off our bikes, every single fall has happened when I was either coming to a stop, or STOPPED.

Yes, stopped.

I'll clip out of my right pedal with no problems, glide to a stop and then WHAM! Fall over on my left side when unable, for whatever reason, to not be able to get my foot out of the saddle.

Fortunately, I have not done this in traffic.

Unfortunately, I have done this in front of other bikers, small children and many, many friends.

I fell last week, broke the mirror and scrapped my knee. Also had a wicked tender spot on the inside of my upper thigh on the left side, where the saddle landed -- hard-- in to my leg.

Today, my wonderful friends Marcia, Gary, Kathy T, Cheryl and Julie all joined me for my last "long" ride before Pigman.

We rode together for about 2 hours and then the team was going to head on back to their cars and I was going to go do one last little burst-of-speed blast.

I pulled off the trail to say goodbye, clipped out of the right side, stopped, and WHAM. Fell over to the LEFT, re-scraping my poor scabbed up knee, and re-hitting that tender spot on my thigh.

The mirror did not break.

Note to self: Find someone or figure out the way to loosen up the clip on my left bike shoe.

Bigger note to self: Mom was right.

Updates: Cat, Toe, Training - cha cha cha

Several updates today.



I'll start with the easiest:

Training:

I did a ROCKING swim yesterday with friends and fellow triathletes Marcia, Gary and Dave. We went to one of Marcia's fav places, Little Long Lake, which is a nice sized, clean lake just outside of Minneapolis. Gas boats and "large" boats are not allowed on the lake, so if there is any boaters, they are in small motorized fishing boats, canoes or kayaks.


The lake is secluded enough that there are not pesky policemen waiting to bust you with a $125.00 ticket for open water swimming. It is not so secluded that there were several other triathletes doing practice swims, so we were definitely not alone in the water.

We swam from the boat launch to a dock, to the other side of the lake, where we encountered about 25 campers, who looked to be about 12 or 13 years old and who were getting ready to go on to the lake for a little canoe adventure. I'm sure we looked like creatures of the sea emerging to attack the camp when we came out of the water.


I did not wear my wetsuit in preparation for the possibility of the lake at Pigman being too warm to allow us to us them. Usually, I depend on the wetsuit for that extra buoyancy in the water.

Yesterday, though I felt very good in the water without it. Hurray. Progress!

Toe:

You might recall Nat's "toe of woe" story from June where she ripped off her big toe nail while trying to put her bike rack on her car.



It took her several weeks to scab over and now she has this cute little bacon strip looking thing where her nail used to be. Looks oh, so chic. (See pics on her blog).

Well, never to be one to let my friends suffer alone, I had my own toe incident recently.

Actually, the actual "incident" happened in July at the Richfield long pool. I was helping to put the lane lines in the water for one of our practice swims and a rung from the line slipped under my big toe nail. Someone pulled up on the line and SNAP went my toe nail.

Hurt and bled like a muthafocker.


What I didn't realize until last Sunday, is that when it went SNAP, it really snapped the nail at the nail bed. I was taking off nail polish and realized I could lift the entire toe nail off my toe, except at one tiny corner where it was still attached to the nail bed.

yeech.


I could see that I had a new nail forming under the old one, so I just clipped the old one off. My new nail does not look like bacon, but it sure does look strange next to the others.


So Nat and I are TOE-ins. (Say it quick; should sound sorta like TWINS).






Cat:

You are probably sick of hearing about Gorby, but it is what it is. He had a recheck with an oncologist at the U this morning and the news was not good at all.

Tumors are back (surgery was a little over three weeks ago). This is a very aggressive cancer indeed.

The Vet, a very, very nice man, outlined a range of treatments including chemo, feeding tubes, blah, blah, blah to doing nothing but making Gorby comfortable.

The chemo course does not really do a lot for him -- it may extend his time a little. It may not.

The "do-nothing" course is also a crap shoot. We don't know how long it may be (or may not be) until he loses his appetite all together, is in pain (or not), is no longer having any quality of life.

Very sad news.


Hubby came with me this morning, and that was very helpful to have the extra support and pair of ears.

Right now, this moment, I'm leaning towards some minor medication to help relieve inflammation and to just let him enjoy what ever time he has left, spoiling him rotten.

I really don't like my friends (furry or otherwise) suffer alone.


And this absolutely breaks my heart.

Hill Work in the Mecca of Hills

Fast and furious business trip this week to San Francisco.

The trip was planned long before Gorby was diagnosed with cancer. I feel a little guilty for leaving, but work is work, and Gorby is doing remarkably well. And, I've got some ACE cat sitters taking care of the house and the critters.

THANK YOU GINNA AND SABRINA!

One really nice thing is that Hubby had to be here too for work so, although we traveled separately and arrived and will depart on different days, we do get to hang out a bit here.

My training plan is "suffering" a bit here, as I don't have a bike here. (Yes, I know I could rent one, but....)

My coach, Greg, did write out my training plan to accommodate my travels: yesterday called for hill work.

I did a nice warm up going from the hotel down to the Ferry Building, over past Fisherman's Wharf to the beach where other triathletes do their open water swims.

I continued past the beach and went out on the breakwater. Turned around and started hill repeats at the entrance of Fort Mason.

The entrance is open to pedestrians and bikers only, so I didn't have to worry about anyone trying to recreate the "Karl-Malden-Michael-Douglas ARE the Streets of San Francisco" thing.

WOW. Talk about a hill for repeats! Zowie!

Up and down; up and down; upanddown; upanddown; updown. You get the drill.

After my run, Hubby and I went Circa for dinner. The head chef is one of the folks that was on Top Chef - Chicago last season. Food was very good (salmon and brown rice for me; sea bass and garlic mashed potatoes for Hubby). We split a slice of really SUPER DELICIOUS key lime cheesecake for dessert.

Hubby is on his way back home now; I leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

I have a swim workout planned for later today. No, not in the bay (call me "Weenie"), but a nice pool at a health club near the hotel.

"4" and "2" -- hours EACH

This was a big weekend for training activities. Pigman is only 20 days away...so it is PEAK training time.

My coach, Greg, scheduled a four-hour bike ride on both Nat's and my calendar for Saturday. We met at my house at 6:45 am yesterday and took off on the trails. We rode routes between Minneapolis and St. Paul for two-hours and then hooked up with our friends Marcia, Marty and Gary at Lake Nokomis.

They were also doing a ride, so we figured "the more, the merrier". We all rode together for about 50 minutes, and then Nat and I turned around to head back to my house.

The ride was actually not too bad. We both determined that we did not bring enough to eat, though. My two fat free Fig Newtons just didn't cut it.

We covered about 50 miles over the 4-hour ride. We stopped a couple of times for traffic lights; once because I fell. At a stoplight.... Not moving..... Just clipped in to my pedal on one side and did the classic BOOM and went over. Hurt my pride more than my hip, which landed squarely on the curb....

We both were hungry and tired after the ride, but it was a confidence builder. We both now think that 56 miles is attainable. Hurrah for us.

Greg, who is also Nat's coach for Pigman, is trying to work with both of us on the "nutrition during the event" thing. It is a delicate balance that we haven't quite mastered.

I also have been experimenting a little with hydration options. I really like Gatorade Endurance Formula. It has a little extra sodium and because I sweat so much when it is hot, I think this is helpful.

I used to be able to buy GEF in liquid form at a local grocery store. But, it must not have been a big seller, because it is no longer offered. Instead, there are shelves and shelves of the "new" Tiger formula. (Named for you-know-who, the Golfer...). That formula also has some extra sodium, but not the same as GEF.

I finally broke down and bought the giant TUB of GEF powder. I found it at a local running store. This works out well for me, because I can mix the formula's strength to my taste a little easier.

But why leave well enough alone?

I had read about Accelerade and found that Target carries it. I picked up a couple of bottles and have used it, but don't like it at all. It has a milky taste to it that I don't care for. Rule out Accelerade.

I had received two bottles of ABB Carbo Force at an event earlier this year. Finally tired those out and they were okay.

I think I'm going to just stick with GEF -- tired and true.

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Today's plan called for a 2-hour run. It was very hot and very humid outside. Typical August weather for us, but since the summer has been so unusual, I'm not totally acclimated to the humidity.

Generally, I don't mind the humidity -- it does take a little bit of time (like, oh let's say, the month of June...) to get used to it.

I left the house and felt very good for about 75 minutes of the run. At 1:15, I started to lose steam. At 1:33, there was no gas in the tank (see "nutrition" comments above). At 1:53 of the run, I was D O N E.

It took every ting I had to just talk myself through running those last eight minutes.

Finally, they ticked away and I was done. Hurrah for me.

Crack o' Dawn...

I met Nat at 6:00 am today for a swim in Channhassen's lovely Lake Ann.

Nat's toe has mostly recovered -- she still has a scab where her nail used to be, but no pain and no scariness, so she is back in the training saddle.

It was a little tough to get up at 5:00 am since it was still dark out. Thank heavens for the timer on our coffee maker.

I can just about stumble out of bed, head in to the kitchen and have that sip of coffee to help convince me it is NOT time to get back under the covers.

We met in the parking lot near the beach just as the raindrops started to fall.

We tried to "convince" each other that we should alter our plans, but then the reality that Pigman 1/2 Iron is less than 30 days away.

There was not threat of thunder or lightening, so we trotted down to the beach, put on our wetsuits and went swimming.

It was a good workout for us. We took the same route I did with our coach -- Greg -- a few weeks back. It took us about 3/4 across the lake and back, for a total of about 40 - 45 mintues.

Then it was home, kiss the just-waking-up Hubby, shower, feed the cats, and zip to work.

I'm not sure that the workday will be as fun as the swim...

Workouts from sunrise to sunset

Just a quick update:


I had a very early conference call with folks on the east coast yesterday, which cut in to my regular morning training schedule.

I was able to still get a good bike workout in yesterday by riding to and from work. May not sound like the "best" bike workout, if you equate "best" to "intense", but when you are running short on time, you get in what you can get in.

I swam with my Tri Club's Masters group last night -- had a really great workout over the hour.

warm up 200 each: IM (I do breast and free); freestyle drill; free build

2 sets each: 100 all out, 50 easy, 10 second rest; 100 at mile pace, 5 seconds rest; 100 at mile pace less 5 seconds, 5 seconds rest; 100 mile pace, 50 easy, 30 seconds rest.

300 free, trying to take two less stokes for each 100. I could cut back by one, but not two...

GLIDE, GLIDE....

I'm really starting to notice how much daylight has disappeared over the last few weeks. I'm up at 5:00 am and usually out the door for my first workout of the day by 5:30 or 5:45... and it is still dark now.

Last night, the sun was gone within 45 minutes of hitting the pool. We wrap up the outdoor workouts for the summer next week. Then it is back to the boring, 25 meter indoor pool.

Time really flies....

Gorby Home; Back to Training

Gorby came home on Saturday -- one day after surgery.

He was doing so well postoperatively (vitals were good; he was eating and drinking) that they let him come home.

It is great to have him back in the house. He is moving slowly, but doing all the right cat stuff -- eating, drinking, using the box and, best of all, purring.

I'll have a full biopsy report in about a week. I am not expecting any miracles.

I will talk to the oncologist about what to expect. My current plans are to spoil that cat as best as I can.

Thanks to you all who posted thoughtful comments. I know he is just a cat, but he is my cat and he means a lot to me.

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Back to training --

I did a brick workout on Saturday with my good friends Marcia and Gary. We swam at Lake Nokomis for about 25 minutes and then went on a 25 mile bike ride.

Gary is an avid cyclist and lead us on a great route that went through Minneapolis, St. Paul and some of the near by suburbs. We rode on beautiful trails, near the Mississippi River and through some great parks.

My training plan scheduled for Sunday was a 3-hour bike ride. I liked the route Gary showed us so much that I pretty much repeated it, adding some additional miles to get to 3-hours. According to mapmyrun.com, I went just about 35 miles.



My only problem yesterday was a crash that happened on one of the bridges over the river.

I went riding later in the day, when the weekend warriors were out. Many families were taking advantage of the nice day. I was on a bridge heading back in to Minneapolis from Mendota Heights and there was a dad riding with a daughter going the opposite way. Behind him was his son (about 8 years old), who's attention was on the river, not the path.

He was veering over to the middle of the path and I had no where to go. He didn't hear me call out to him, "Heads UP!"

His handlebars clipped my handlebars and we both went flying down.

Fortunately, neither of us was hurt (no blood), but his hand hurt and my hip is tender today.

The boy apologized profusely -- I did too. The dad was not mad (hurrah) and we all survived.

Made me very leery of bridges for the rest of my ride, though.

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The next couple of weeks will be filled with lots of intense workouts. I'm okay with that. It will help me keep my mind off of other things.

What a Weekend it Was...

The Forth of July has come and gone.

Kaboom. (ohh, ahh)

It was really a wonderful weekend, full of great activities. Hubby and I golfed, grilled and gardened.

We also got together with friends and went on a 39-mile bike ride along the Cannon Valley Trail

The trail is wonderful. Well paved and mostly shady, it winds (downhill) to Red Wing, another wonderful Minnesota river community.

It was wonderful to ride with Hubby, Marcia, Marty, Kathy, Marc and Matt.

Nat and her boyfriend, Rich, were going to join us, but her toe is still on the mend. Hopefully she'll be back in the bike saddle soon.

Like every other "endurance event" I've participated in, we were all chatty and peppy on the way to Red Wing.

Here is a photo of us on the way there:

Note the happy, smiling faces, the great postures, the "let's go get 'em" expressions.

Once we got to Red Wing, we took a well deserved lunch break. Food and conversation were both great.

Then we started our way back to Cannon Falls. Although the trial is not really hilly, there is a slow, steady grade. Now were were winding our way BACK UP the trail.

Here is a picture of us on the way back:

Note: less smiling faces, less enthusiasm, less pep.

Regardless of our energy levels, we got back to Cannon Valley without incident.

(Well, except for seeing a snake along the trail, which freaked me out totally....).

Good news for me is that the ride, just shy of 40 miles, helped me with my confidence of being able to handle 56 miles during Pigman. I know that 16 miles is a lot -- and that precedes a 1/2 marathon, but I still have 5 weeks of training to go to prepare.

After we all got back to Minneapolis, we went to a BBQ hosted by another good friend of ours. We ate lots of great summer foods. Always a favorite part of mine...

I also got together with my good friend Mary K., who has been busy (overwhelmed) with managing kid activities this summer. We had a chance to catch up over coffee and to make some plans for a picnic dinner for later this month.

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Training continues...

I did a course preview yesterday for LifeTime.

Rode my bike to Lake Nokomis, then hopped in to the water for a test swim without my wetsuit. The temperatures have risen and I'm not sure that, by Saturday, wet suits will be legal.

I've gotten to rely on the buoyancy of the suit and if we can't wear them, I want to make sure that I feel comfortable in the water.

It was hot and humid yesterday -- our first 90 degree day of the summer. The beach was packed and lots of recreational swimmers were splashing close to shore. Past the ropes, where the water runs deeper, were "my people" -- other triathletes getting ready for Saturday.

I got in the water, got past the ropes and swam for about 20 minutes. It went pretty well.

Then I ran the 10k course, which loops the lake twice.

LifeTime always seems to happen on the hottest day of our summer (one year it was in the high 90s and the water temp was 82...). This year, it is expected to be hot and humid (again). Being out there yesterday was good practice for this weekend.

I'm hoping to have a better finish time than at Rochester, but I'll be happy to just participate and enjoy the day.